


Naturalization

by Kasuchi



Category: How I Met Your Mother
Genre: F/M, One-sentence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-22
Updated: 2008-12-22
Packaged: 2017-12-27 18:42:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/982292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kasuchi/pseuds/Kasuchi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I'll try anything once, twice if I like it, three times to make sure.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Naturalization

**Author's Note:**

> For **bredalot** , a longtime reader of mine. ♥
> 
> Thanks to **tenebris** for doing a super-awesomely-quick beta. ♥

**01\. Motion**

"I have to go swimming," he says, and asks who would like to join him; even though the question is for everyone, he looks right at her.

**02\. Cool**

She walks down 75th, feeling confident in her favorite heels and blouse, when suddenly her heel snaps, and she damn near breaks her neck.

 _(take two:)_ She realizes, later, that the sight of a woman shouting at a busted pump in French and English is not the strangest sight the average New Yorker has seen.

**03\. Young**

She talks to her sister more often now, long distance be damned; it's easier now that she's realized that they're both "grown-ups," even if 18 feels so young.

**04\. Last**

She hadn't slept with anyone after Barney for months, and she doesn't know what that says about her.

**05\. Wrong**

The dreams aren't erotic - they're about vaguely domestic bliss, phone calls, and cuddling on the couch watching movies - and they're almost more terrifying for it.

**06\. Gentle**

Marshall reminds her, sometimes, of the guys she used to play hockey with: large, good-natured, and pretty much the biggest dorks around.

**07\. One**

She pads into the bar, stockinged feet slipping on the floor as she makes her way to the booth and falls into it bonelessly, taking the glass in front of him without asking and draining it in a few short swallows.

**08\. Thousand**

Sometimes, she looks up at the sky, neck aching as it arches back, expecting to see stars; instead, she only sees inky darkness and bright neon lights.

**09\. King**

She tried to be everything her father wanted her to be and found herself inherently unhappy, but when she rebelled against all of that she became a one-hit wonder and wasn't necessarily happier; she thinks, maybe, she's closer to happy now.

**10\. Learn**

She realized a long time ago that love is not always enough.

**11\. Blur**

Sometimes she will wake up as the threads of her dreams vanish like dandelion seeds, and all she is left with are fleeting images of hands clasped together, lips pressed against her skin, and the blue glow of a television the size of a wall.

**12\. Wait**

"I have an aural fixation," he admits dejectedly, swirling the liquid in the bottom of his glass; despite knowing she shouldn't, she laughs.

**13\. Change**

Secret: even though she thinks long hair suits her best, she misses having the close-cropped short hair that she did for half of high school.

**14\. Command**

She actually did get to build a sandcastle that day, with Katie and the boom mic operator.

**15\. Hold**

It's the worst position she's ever found herself in: out of a job, living with her ex, savings dwindling by the month, resume untouched since October, and, above all of that, realizing she's got growing crush on their resident womanizer.

**16\. Need**

He buys her another drink, then scribbles the name and number of a good cobbler he knows in Little Italy on a cocktail napkin, sliding it across the table until their hands nearly touch.

**17\. Vision**

She buys a new pair of heels and bitches at Lily about how annoying it is to break in shoes; months later, she's not only glad she took the time to break them in early, but she also loves them for landing her a job.

**18\. Attention**

Robin wonders sometimes if Katie remembers anything about the long weeks on tour, going from mall to mall all over Canada, and if Katie maybe hates her a little bit for it.

**19\. Soul**

Despite her love of guns, cigars, and scotch, she really loves chick flicks - not all of them, but some of the more classic ones; when she was still touring, she would watch Hepburn/Tracy movies in the hotel rooms.

**20\. Picture**

There's a stuffed toy dog tucked away in her room in Vancouver with a dogtag around its neck that reads "Sir Scratchy," its body still soft and plush.

**21\. Fool**

It doesn't occur to her until later that he probably wasn't yet back to 100% physically, so he _couldn't_ play lasertag.

**22\. Mad**

She shouldn't be half as surprised as she is that he can sing pretty well, or that the more they have to drink the crazier his song choices are for her.

**23\. Child**

From the bag he pulls out a tiny suit and an assortment of plush toys; his arms gesture wildly, and she hides her laughter behind sips of her drink.

**24\. Now**

Her friends mean more to her than she thinks any of them know.

**25\. Shadow**

He looks terribly dejected when she walks into the bar, so she slides in across from him, orders both of them whiskey sours, and flashes him a smile.

**26\. Goodbye**

She insists to herself that she's over Ted, and most of the time she's right; you never really stop loving people you have loved.

**27\. Hide**

She misses her dogs terribly, especially when she cleans and finds chew toys and old blankets tucked away into corners.

**28\. Fortune**

For her sister's birthday, Robin sends her some money and a list of "recommended reading," all of which are romance novels and erotica; no one can ever say she doesn't love her little sister.

**29\. Safe**

Ted was softer, she thought, in body and heart, full of a joy that echoed in everything he did without being childlike (like Marshall) or simply goofy; as a lover, sex with Ted was always full of laughter and light.

**30\. Ghost**

There's a little, tiny coffee shop three blocks from her apartment that sells coffee and pastries that taste _exactly_ like a place back in Vancouver.

**31\. Book**

Robin got addicted to the Harry Potter books because her sister (and her mother) made her read them; she cried a little when Dumbledore died.

**32\. Eye**

She doesn't read much, though she does try to make it through the New York Times every day; last time, Robin caught Barney doing the Sudoku while she worked on the crossword, and they switched when they each got stuck.

**33\. Never**

She hasn't told her sister that she's living with Ted again, or that she slept with Barney; somehow, she thinks she'd send the wrong message.

**34\. Sing**

He drags her out to a karaoke bar - "it's the new lasertag, Sherbatsky--" "I thought paintball was--" "Shut up?" - and shoves a beer and the songbook into her hands unceremoniously; his fingers drag over the backs of her hands as he pulls away.

**35\. Sudden**

Sometimes, Ted will smile and she'll remember how it felt pressed against her skin; sometimes, Ted will (very carefully) fix his hair, and she'll remember running her hands through it and tugging on tufts.

**36\. Stop**

"I'd make a dirty joke except it seems too easy," he says; she points out that that's never stopped him before, and he laughs.

**37\. Time**

She really does want the best for Ted, for him to get the white house with the picket fence and the 2.4 kids and everything; she's neither that selfish nor that delusional to think he'd keep waiting for her.

**38\. Wash**

She holds onto his suit jacket and has to resist smelling it; when he handed it to her, she got a whiff of nice cologne, a faint hint of soap deodorant, and that same scent of _male_ from so many months ago.

**39\. Torn**

She likes Barney's cologne, but she also liked how Ted's hair wax smelled after he first applied it.

**40\. History**

Occasionally, her sister will trick her into clicking a link that's really "Let's Go to the Mall"; Marshall calls it a rickroll, Ted and Lily laugh, and Barney wonders aloud why he didn't think of it sooner.

**41\. Power**

Five things Robin finds sexy: fights and the aftermath (duh), water and/or wet guys (another duh), ties (a well-placed full windsor makes her stutter), tallness (tall guys are _awesome_ when you're 173 centimeters), and unplanned sweetness; for the last, it's almost more meaningful when it isn't a grand, orchestrated affair.

**42\. Bother**

Her least favorite part of shooting "Sandcastles in the Sand" was that she found sand everywhere for ages - she remembered this, suddenly, after she came back from Argentina.

**43\. God**

She misses stupid little things about Canada - the feel of the sun on her skin in the summertime, the smell of Tim Horton's when you walk in, the sound of Québécois from across the street spoken fast and sharp - but the one big thing she misses is how much bigger everything felt, even the sky and stars.

**44\. Wall**

She closes the door behind her and begins brushing her teeth, eyes avoiding her reflection in the mirror, while trying not to think about the scent of him - cologne and sweat and that spicy undertone of _man_ \- sticking to her skin.

**45\. Naked**

Sometimes, Lily will eye her with something like predatory glee, and Robin will have to distract her before there's a threesome proposal out of the shorter woman's mouth.

**46\. Drive**

Egging Barney on while he did his physical therapy was more fun than she would have guessed it would be, especially with Marshall.

**47\. Harm**

She breaks the heel on her favorite pair of pumps; he nods in all the right places as she rants and wails about what is most certainly the worst day of her life.

**48\. Precious**

Barney, on the other hand, was thinner and harder, a more skilled lover (certainly) but one in whom gestures of affection were somehow so much more important; sex with Barney was a whirlwind of sensation, one that left her breathless and more than a little starry-eyed.

**49\. Hunger**

She tries not to run her eyes over his chest as he pulls himself out of the pool; judging by the smirk on his face, she fails spectacularly.

**50\. Believe**

She's perhaps the most surprised of everyone when she discovers the hickey on her neck.

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. There are four distinct plot threads and then a series of "anything goes".
> 
> 2\. I identify with Robin on the show. So anything a little OOC is probably me doing a little character bleed.
> 
> 3\. Guess: which came first, the sentence or the prompt? Go!
> 
> 4\. "I'll try anything once, twice if I like it, three times to make sure." - Mae West
> 
> 5\. Happy holidays, everyone!


End file.
